Date (happened)
c. 1920
(possible)
media 1654 field_clip_date = 1920, recorded as 'CWB filename date (bare year in filename)': 1920singer-scaled.jpeg
Persons
The American Legion's 'Passing Show', directed by Miss Chloe Dysart, filled a high school auditorium and was repeated the following night. In the minstrel first half, 'probably the biggest hit in the way of a musical number' was made by Walter Lanyon singing the French marching song 'Madelon' — he rendering it in the original French, the chorus joining in on the English translation of the refrain. He also sang 'Smilin' Through' among the other musical numbers.
The rest of the programme, as the review records it. Musical numbers in the minstrel half: 'O Death, Where is Thy Sting' by Frank Logan; 'It's Nobody's Business But [My Own]' by Kammerdiener; 'You'd Be Surprised' by Harmon Brosius; 'Slow and [Easy]' by T. Wallace; 'Mandy' by the entire chorus; and several songs by the minstrel quartet. Anderson Lear sang two soprano solos posed as 'Madam Pauline Arthur, a French singer', keeping the audience guessing whether he was a man or a woman until he removed his wig at the end of the second song. The 'Womanless Wedding' saw Simmons as the bride and Wink Thompson as 'Pancho Villa' the bridegroom pronounced 'man and woman' by Major Halliburton, with Harry Palmer as the bride's mother and Frank Snyder and James Ammerman as her twin sisters. 'Down at the Huskin' Bee' followed, with solos by Mary Kathryn Blankenship and Margaret Brett supported by a chorus of small girls.
The second, cabaret half included two solos by Mrs. Marian Wright Powers, a dance by Miss Marjorie Leggett, and a Spanish dance by Misses Dana Brown and Martha Seaver that drew 'a great storm of applause' and was reckoned one of the best features of the evening; also 'Jack-o'-Lantern' (Nira Hench), 'He's a College Boy' (Cecile Moss), a Grecian dance 'The Pipes of [Pan]', 'Boogie Boo Rag' (Nina Vermillion), 'Bachelor Days' (Herbert Johns) and 'Baby' (Geneva Wilbur with Mr. Johns). A machine gun drill by a squad of former Company A men under Lieut. Frank Snyder followed, the squad including Harry Palmer, Paul Ford, Paul Havens and George Snyder. After a 'Negro Sermon' by Clevenger the performance closed with a decorated see-saw scene.
The town is not named in the clipping, which says only 'the High school auditorium'; no location has been assigned to this event.